Hush, Little Secrets
by Svetlana Morealt
Summary: He was like a ghost that only she could see, plastered to her body like her own shadow. The mystery behind Agent. Aeon. Lengthened into a twoshot due to requests.
1. Hush, Little Secrets

Resounding footsteps collided with the metal grating below, leather heels made a soft click each time they padded across the surface of the submarine floor. She'd only just arrived. Ada felt the figure behind her shuffle without sound, the shadow of the Agent moved alongside the wall in front of her as she grasped the metal bar of the door and twisted until it opened. She cast a glance over her shoulder, eyes latched on to the black-clad comrade who raised a hand, thumb poised in the air toward the ceiling encouragingly.

_Right behind you._

Attention averted back toward the door, she stepped through with the shadow of a man following in suit at her back as she passed the corridor to the guard that awaited further down the curve of the pathway. She paused, feet slowed to a stop as the Agent brushed by her; shoulder to shoulder in what should have caused a friction. Instead she felt little more than a brush of air as he stepped closer, hands extended to grip a hold of the unsuspecting J'avo guard. It happened in the blink of an eye. A quick pull, a sudden lift of the knee and silent snap of the neck. Her eyes fluttered closed, barely for a moment, then reopened to the shimmering body as it combusted at her feet, the Agent now gone from sight.

Glossy lips pursed together slightly as she stepped away through the next corridor, no longer feeling the shadow at her back. It wasn't until she slipped under a small passageway on her knees that she'd come face to foot with dark shaded boots. Her gaze lifted, slowly and sure to see him with one palm at his hip and the other with a knife held readily in hand. She allowed her lips a small upward curl as she rose to her feet and stepped past him, her ears immediately honed in on the sound of heavy footsteps patrolling the pathway beyond the next turn. She waited until they began to pace in the opposite direction before she slid her way to the corner, crossbow aimed for the perfect strike.

But there it was, another blink of an eye and the Agent was ahead of her, in front of the J'avo with the blade of the knife embedded through the frame of it's mask and directly into it's skull. She lowered her weapon as the Agent offered a slight shrug.

_I can handle it._

Something was off. As the J'avo fell to the floor, Ada turned her attention to her lowered crossbow.

It's arrow was missing.

Her eyes scaled back across the metal beneath her feet directly over to the melting foe. Instead of the knife in place between it's eyes, her missing bolt lay buried deep into the creature's forehead.

Agent was gone again.

He seemed to enjoy his little mind games, reappearing only to disappear again the moment Ada looked away. Slippery, just like her. It wasn't until later when the sub had started to sink and overflow with water that splashed around her that he remained by her at all times. She'd climb a ladder only to find him already at the top of it where he'd give a gentle nod.

_I'm here._

As metal platings and broken pipelines crumbled around her and under her feet, he was barely a few steps away from her side. Even after the use of her grappling hook, a glance to her right would prove that he was still there. Somehow.

It didn't make sense, not in a logical or believable way to anyone else. But to her... She wouldn't have it any other way.

Ada had witnessed him get hit once from carelessness. He was reckless and gained a small scrape across the side of his arm; enough to sting and draw blood, but far from anything fatal. It wasn't until after the room had been clear that she'd stopped to chide him, almost able to _feel_ a slight smile coming from underneath the mask. A tiny uplift, a barely viewable slant toward the sky. It was never more than that, she didn't have to see underneath his covering to know it.

When he disappeared again, she found herself tending to the smear of crimson at her arm.

From beginning to end, even long after the submarine incident, he was there behind her like a ghost. A silent guardian angel that forced more from her, always there as a reminder and always there as encouragement. To let her feel as though she wasn't alone anymore.

When she'd first taken the helicopter, he was one seat over in the co-pilot's chair until she'd found Leon and Helena. He'd disappeared again like a brush of wind, he left her to fire down on to the zombies that threatened the lives of the duo below. It wasn't until she'd pulled away that she knew he'd come back.

_Good work._

Later, after she'd landed and during their second fight on the rooftops with Simmons, she'd seen him above through the window near Helena. Not firing to aid the other woman, but instead his attention was as always, directed to the spy. When she parted ways with the two, Ada found him back at her side shortly after. As she'd watched the evidence, seen footage of the atrocities Carla had committed, he loomed over her like her own shadow; always attached to every last step. Even as she unleashed clip after clip into everything around her, as she destroyed anything that stood as a threat to her name, he waited for her.

Then she'd met him, finally. Face to face. The mask discarded into the same shadows of her mind whence he came.

There were no more lies or delusions, not as she stared him down, her eyes locked with his own that stared back from underneath the strands of hair that never seemed to fall out of place.

_Ada._

She couldn't stop her lips from forming a smile if she'd wanted as she closed her eyes and leaned forward. She could almost feel their foreheads brush together, almost smell him through her nostrils, almost _taste_ him on her lips. He stood before her now in a new clarity, even as she knew in the back of her mind all along what he was. A reminder of all the things she'd wanted, of all the things she thought she would never have...

Of the one thing, she'd never _allow_ herself to have.

Leon Scott Kennedy.

Her Agent, her savior, her weakness.

She expected him to have disappeared by the time she opened her eyes, but this time he'd surprised her. For one overly elongated moment, she'd felt her heart skip and the world freeze around her. He leaned in, his lips grazed across her own as he faded into air, this time in view of her longing stare. She'd slipped, allowed herself to give into something that didn't exist, a figment of imagery that _couldn't_ exist in the reality of all things. Her secret truth was that of all the times she'd play hard to get and always left him on edge, deep down she'd always felt the impulse to stay.

Not that she'd ever willingly admit it.


	2. Swallow Your Truths

Another time, another job, again they'd found themselves woven together on the same path; attached by means of fate, inseparable. The C-Virus refused to face extinction. Ada found Leon through the sights of a scope, once more he played the hero by helping handfuls of civilians escape the hordes that pursued in their tracks. Agent had disappeared again, long gone from her presence the moment she laid eyes on the figure through the view of her weapon.

He'd return eventually, he always did.

Ada in turn played the eye in the sky above with a nimble finger that tugged it's hold over the trigger, the gun was nothing more but a resounding echo from the rooftop. His eyes had begun to search almost frantically the moment the infected had dropped, up until he found what he was after the moment they met with her own. Her lips curled slightly, a small curve shaped at their corners as she hopped away with the grappling gun in hand, she felt his gaze on her all the while even after she disappeared from sight. Always after something he wasn't ready to have, even after all the long years that had passed. It was cute in it's own way.

The moment her heels touched another rooftop, she'd heard a shuffle from behind her. A quick glance revealed Agent to be back at her side, his head tipped forward in a short nod.

_Back with you._

She almost felt a layer of comfort fold over her shoulders the moment she saw him again. Instead, she turned her attention to the far side of the building and descended the small stairway that led down into the pits of the structure, a second pair of footsteps that only she could hear followed behind in a pace that matched her own. With an unspoken bond and an understanding that delved beyond words, they proceeded forward through various floors of flesh eating monstrosities that threw themselves in their direction. Agent remained with her all throughout, nine-oh-nine held out and at the ready to fend off from the incoming attacks.

One after the next, the creatures had become little more than dissipating corpses that melted away into stains on the floor. As leather heels clicked over the dirtied ground, the only bullets that were left behind had been from her own Ammo Box 50 machine pistol, not a single strip of metal from the barrel of the handgun Agent grasped between his fingertips; even as she'd witnessed him fire, as she saw amidst the chaos the bodies that had hit the floor. She could almost feel the tiniest of smiles from under the mask he had replaced over his features long ago.

_Beautiful._

Her silent guardian, the falsified image she built around herself to cope with all the times she ran away. A perfect portrait of how she secretly wanted things to be. She had come to terms with him now, the cryptic savior that only she could see. His presence had become a welcome thing.

As it always had been, the more they advanced forward, the more times she found herself in the same field as Leon and each time was just like the last; Agent would disappear from sight like little more than a ghost of the past. He would fade into memory at the sight of the real thing in front of her eyes, laying in wait for the time she found herself alone again before he would make his way back to her from the shadows of her mind.

One particular reunion she had with Leon nearly cost both their lives; it was enough for her heart to tighten in her chest despite her calm demeanor, he had a way of bringing out parts of her that she never intended for people to see. The C-Virus was as ruthless as always, and it's mutations were extreme. Their bodies worked in tune together with reflexes that matched perfectly in unison, but even then it had only barely been enough and the end result had left them both winded.

Ada turned on her heel to make the same leave she always had, until a hand on her arm slowed her movements to a halt. She saw a look in his eyes that spoke a thousand words, all of them darted toward her to pierce holes into her heart.

_You never wait._

_Why won't you let me follow you?_

_You have to stop running, one day._

He didn't have to say anything, but he did. "Ada, wait." It was a familiar line Leon had found himself repeating after every encounter they shared, and each time it still tore into her even worse than the one before - even if she was still as unwilling as ever to admit it. The stakes were too high, the consequences were too large. "We both have a job to complete, Leon." The slightest movement of her arm slipped it from his grasp as she turned again, still aware of his figure as it edged closer and hovered just over her shoulder.

"You know, you can't keep playing hard to get." Her breath halted briefly, unnoticeable by him the moment he spoke the words. As much as it pained her to admit; it was still a truth that was well known to her. Leon had made his mark, integrated himself into her very soul. The mysterious Agent who came and went just as often as she was evidence enough of that.

Ada remained strong, "I don't think you're ready for something more." Neither one of them was, and yet they simultaneously were. It was a complicated dance that carried on for years of fighting, of running, and yet the result was always the same in the end; a continuous, agonizing loophole. But just like that, he had circled around to her front, face barely inches away from her own. Her heart uncharacteristically increased it's rhythm at the sensation of him being so close, so near, just as the visions of desire that plagued her non-stop.

Leon gave the slightest shake of his head, intense blue eyes fell lower until they rested at her glossy lips. One hand rose up to stroke a gentle tracing across her cheek before it settled at the back of her head, tangled softly into her hair. "And I think we've both waited long enough." His body took a step closer to her own, the heat from him slid off to her in waves as he leaned in with lips that hovered just over her own, so close but not touching. They shared the same air with every taken breath, and every exhale left a ghosted breeze to drift across each other's tiers.

Ada allowed her eyes to drift shut, everything in her pleading to stay still in the moment. "...Sorry, Leon." Her strong will won over as she raised an arm to the side, the grappling gun shot off into the distance and pulled her free from his grasp before their lips could fully connect. She didn't allow herself to look back, to bare witness to those perfect features of his that twisted with longing and hurt. The heart could only take so many cracks until it shattered itself to pieces; even Ada was well aware of the nature that fact bore. She paused the moment her feet set onto ground again, every feeling in her body edged at her to go back, to stop her little games and take what they both wanted with a passion.

The moment her eyes reopened, Agent stood before her as an instant reminder that made all her decisions give weight to a much more crushing force over her shoulders.

_You can't always run away._

She watched him in silence for some time as her emotions waged a battle inside of her. She gave no motion to the chaos tearing through her from within, her features as always bore their sense of calm for all to see. The ghost before her knew better, the shake of his head was the only further reply he'd give as time passed on. He brushed against her to make way for the door, her own feet trailed behind his in that instance until he waited for her beside the frame. Her hand reached forward to grasp the handle, until an arm from behind encircled her and digits wove themselves around her own. "Not this time, Ada." A voice breathed in her ear as she found herself being turned around.

Somehow, Leon had managed to catch up to her. She stared at him from under thick lashes with hidden surprise as she felt his arm at her waist, held there to effectively pin her from an escape while he pulled her close. He didn't wait this time and dived in, lips placed gently over top her own until she wavered underneath him, all of her willfulness dissipated into mush as she allowed herself to give in and return the gesture. It was slow but sweet at first, a test to the waters that they had both been waiting to drown themselves in for so long. There was a pause when he finally pulled back to allow them air, where he'd instead placed his forehead to hers much like she'd always imagined.

Leon kept his eyes closed as he focused on the shared moment, but Ada found hers opening to rest on a sight over his shoulder. For the first time, Agent had allowed himself to be shown with Leon nearby. She could feel the smile roll off of him from under the helmet, a perfect reflection of the one that danced across Leon's features as none of them said a word. Agent gave a last raise of his hand, thumb pointed toward the ceiling with a nod of approval at the new string of events, before his image faded away from view.

_Don't be afraid._

Something inside told her that it would be the last time she'd see him... But even with all they'd been through together, as her arms raised to wrap around Leon's neck and rejoin their lips in a delicate kiss, she was at ease with his disappearance. For in place of him, she now had the real thing.


End file.
